Arpine Konyalian Grenier: 2 poems

Arpine Konyalian Grenier

2 poems from ‘If it weren’t
for Manjun’

JPR 09

Majnun Layla was one of the four renowned poets from the olden days of Arabia, remembered for the resounding experience of love they registered with their words. While the words Majnun Layla remind us of the poet or the epic story of two young lovers (Layla and Majnun), their English translation would actually be Majnun of Layla — the one crazy about Layla (majnun in Arabic means crazy). In those days, all the four poets were referred to, not by their actual names but by their name and the name of the female they loved (were crazy about?). Belonging was inferred, not ownership nor hierarchy, but love; also with Mary, hail hail.

If it weren’t for Manjun /
or if it weren’t for Mary

JPR 09

We’re looking for love that is from God we said
better be anxious than in despair we said
back to back phenomena matter
phenomena to facts
bonding hides

people culture domain content

we visited ourselves counting money
there were no doors no window
a beautiful woman hissed
money is done for

mother said living has nothing to do with it
why don’t you go out and play

there was no boredom or vanity to oblate
I did not rest along intention without
acceding to charity I decided
to provoke language

to aim at life’s travail instead

whose artifice this is

to burn any need I may have had
need presence was gift for
a mind off static
a tempt
cohesive between sayer and fact

do not board up alternatives deleting Majnun or
cowered into squint or squirm nullify resource
to trim the staples of word frayed emotion
language created tasks carry
into belief
intervention presses

progressed and participated intrusions of a tribe
out of how one sees the same differently
image matter political to personal
ordinary or decorative

still bravery and survival techniques ramble
out of favor while stealing from God
the abundance safely Layla
betrays speech

then peregrines and gyrfalcon scream for time
against humanly enacted motives
foreign territory courses into
the gender of night

a little friendship the amount of hope is love
as if denial paled current paled mind
poison behind Layla cut
Majnun promise
hallways and streets

they cry for the post human in you
orphaned emotion sun-dances
point to it one must
hangout to cingulate

that advisable worksheet charity solved
bleeds the past away ceaselessly
its originality without face
dipper to tipper
trespass for the double in the mind

buffer dilute or deflect what is long overdue
prior to the doing away of history
expose being without memory
overcome by the window

above a structure labelled romance.

If it Weren’t for Mary

JPR 09

That does it Mary

cease your lack!

my secret is yours is landscape
what might have been
off moon bark
pull it

part of fragment cedes truest hold
freshly tendered and remarkable
after perfection of matter we
firing up souls at death
into hoke-vark

we’ll still refer to ether when it comes to words Mary
you are better than the person you want to be
what tragedy leaning away
voiding an offering

discrimination to choice our intellect
seeing has nothing to do with
made to walk it all off

abundance imposes

one needs to have heard an unexpected beat
to have seen it coming Mary Mary come
come to me with faith and doubt
frolic and failure no matter
impose on daze

we’ll climb the geometric regard for silence
without it the social will contract
corporation law distraction
dog cat often birdly

an evaluative other.

image

Arpine Konyalian Grenier was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon after the post-Ottoman-era-induced French rule of the region ended. Four of her collections are published, another is forthcoming. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, more recently in Big Bridge, Tammy Journal and Barzakh. Other credits include multi-disciplinary collaborations, guest editing and presenting at conferences. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.